Divided school board extends Title contract with 1.75% raise

The Board of Education approved a 1.75 percent salary increase for Supt. of Schools David Title at a special meeting Thursday.

The Board of Education approved a 1.75 percent salary increase for Supt. of Schools David Title at a special meeting Thursday.

Photo: Genevieve Reilly /Fairfield Citizen

Photo: Genevieve Reilly /Fairfield Citizen

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The Board of Education approved a 1.75 percent salary increase for Supt. of Schools David Title at a special meeting Thursday.

The Board of Education approved a 1.75 percent salary increase for Supt. of Schools David Title at a special meeting Thursday.

Photo: Genevieve Reilly /Fairfield Citizen

Divided school board extends Title contract with 1.75% raise

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The Board of Education, after huddling about an hour in closed executive session Thursday, voted 5-4 to extend Superintendent of Schools David Title’s contract with a 1.75 percent raise for the 2015-16 fiscal year.

Though the board members’ vote on Title’s employment was not unanimous, it was one of the mostly quickly made decisions at the special meeting, which stretched to a marathon lasting seven hours.

Voting against both the raise and contract extension were Republicans Paul Fattibene, John Llewellyn and Eileen Liu-McCormack, and Democrat Donna Karnal — frequent allies often at odds with the board’s five other members.

Title was granted the raise on his base salary of $239,916. His contract, which was to run from 2014 through 2017, was amended to run through 2018. The other terms of the contract remain the same.

Title has been superintendent of the town’s public schools since 2010.

Llewellyn argued with Chairman Philip Dwyer that the superintendent’s contract and compensation were not properly before the board at Thursday’s meeting. He said language in the contract “clearly” states the board may consider a request to extend the contract in June, pointing out that those issues had not been included on the agenda in June.

The board, however, did meet in a closed session in June to discuss Title’s evaluation.

Dwyer also read an opinion from the school board’s attorney indicating that a vote on Title’s contract Thursday night was appropriate. The end of the first full year of the contract would have been June 29, he said, “so any vote on or after June 28 would be appropriate.”

The board’s vote means that Title’s contract was extended through June 30, 2018, on the same terms as the previous pact, with the exception of the base salary.

There was no other public discussion by board members of the contract extension and raise.